Bondi weighs in on Anthony

ORLANDO — Casey Anthony should be forced to serve probation for check fraud, because it was impossible to enforce the sentence when she was jailed while awaiting trial on charges of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Florida's attorney general said Monday.

A court filing from Attorney General Pam Bondi's office opposes efforts by Anthony's attorneys — who say she is now back in Florida — to prevent her from serving the probation sentence. Last week, Anthony's attorneys filed an appeal in state court arguing she had already served the probation sentence while she was jailed on the murder charge.

Anthony was acquitted last month of murdering her daughter, Caylee, in a case unrelated to the check fraud, and she was released from the Orange County Jail. Since then, she has kept a low profile, and her exact whereabouts have been secret.

"Legally, it is clear that a defendant cannot serve probation while incarcerated," the attorney general's filing said.

Circuit Judge Stan Strickland sentenced Anthony to a year of probation in January 2010 after she pleaded guilty to stealing checks from a friend. At the time, Strickland said Anthony should serve the probation upon her release, but those instructions never made it into a written order. Corrections officials interpreted the sentence to mean Anthony could serve the probation while she was in jail.